The present invention relates generally to apparatus for enhancing the status of cardiac and cerebral health in the human body, and more particularly to method and apparatus for implementing rhythmic blood pressure modulation generally suitable for enhancing blood flow through portions of the cardiovascular system comprised in the torso, neck and head, and specifically through, or around, partially clogged coronary arteries as well as through arteries of the brain.
Cardiovascular disease eventually kills at least four out of every 10 Americans. Conventional treatment tends to rely on suppressing symptoms with drugs or invasive procedures including balloon angioplasty, stent placement and bypass surgery. Alternately, a totally non-invasive procedure known as Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (hereinafter “EECP”) is just now beginning to be used in conventional cardiovascular practice. EECP involves a patient lying supinely (e.g., face up in a nominally horizontal position) with pressure cuffs around his or her calves, and thighs. Then an intermittent pressure source inflates and deflates the cuffs in a sequential manner in synchronism with the patient's heartbeat as controlled by electronic apparatus receiving appropriate signals therefor from EKG apparatus also applied to the patient. Generally, the concept is to effect impulses of increased blood pressure by forcing blood toward the patient's torso and head in synchronism with his or her heartbeat. According to a pamphlet entitled “EECP Treatment” available from Vascomedical Inc. of Westbury, N.Y. this procedure may enable the patient's heart to self create collateral circulation around partially clogged coronary arteries.
Still more recently and in accordance with a claimed “method for enhancing a patient's cardiovascular activity and health” as fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,250 B1 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING CARDIOVASCULAR ACTIVITY AND HEALTH THROUGH RHYTHMIC LIMB ELEVATION and issued to Edward H. Phillips on Jul. 17, 2001, it has been found that substantially the same benefits (e.g., self creation of collateral circulation around partially clogged coronary arteries) can be attained at any time in any venue by virtually any patient via his or her unassisted utilization of synchronous rhythmic limb elevation (hereinafter “RLE”) apparatus. In such use synchronous RLE operation is employed via synchronously elevating and lowering all four of the patient's limbs at a relatively modest frequency of perhaps 20 to 25 cycles per minute. In view of the fact that the claimed “method for enhancing a patient's cardiovascular activity and health” and its benefits are fully described in the '250 patent, that patent is expressly incorporated herein by reference and thus the method and its benefits with respect to heart disease need not be further described herein.
Of additional interest herein however, is the fact that a number of studies have shown that from relatively early ages most people begin to accumulate the “plaques and tangles” characteristic of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological diseases in the arteries of their brains. This of course results in an early abnormal death rate of brain cells unless a method for improving blood circulation in the brain can be provided. In fact, some 4.5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease already with perhaps as many as another 1.5 million having Parkinson's disease as well. Fortunately, most are still in the early stages where progress of these diseases might be materially delayed by improved blood circulation in the brain. In this regard, it has been suggested that a “lifestyle comprising daily exercise” can enable one to materially delay, or possibly even eliminate, the onset and progression of these diseases. In fact, there is a plethora of published papers relating to the relationship between diminished blood flow to the brain and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Cerebral Palsy and practically every other neurological disease one can think of. The problem has been that while the medical community on all continents has been writing about this problem, until recently conducted experiments with EECP (e.g., yet to be published) nobody has been doing anything about it. Because of the improved blood circulation in the torso, neck and head uniquely resulting from synchronous RLE, it is believed herein that synchronous RLE could well be a preferred therapeutic exercise for treatment of all of these neurological diseases.
On the other hand, there has been some reluctance to accept synchronous RLE for these purposes because synchronous RLE apparatus is somewhat bulky, complex and formidable in operation. In fact, it has been found experimentally that some neurological disease patients have considerable difficulty in efficiently operating synchronous RLE apparatus. For instance, one of the characteristic problems that plagues many Parkinson's patients is a form of rigidity brought on by virtually any form of stress. It has been found that even the relatively simple tasks of donning leg and arm supporting straps and turning on the synchronous RLE apparatus can create such stress often resulting in rigidity that substantially defeats the RLE concept described above.
What is needed is rhythmic blood pressure modulation (hereinafter “RBPM”) apparatus that is able to provide the substantially the same, or even further enhanced levels of blood flow through portions of cardiovascular system comprised in the torso, neck and head, and specifically through, or around, partially clogged coronary arteries as well as through the arteries of the brain—but that at the same time is significantly smaller and simpler to operate with no coordinated muscle activity required. Therefore, objects of the present invention include providing suitable RBPM apparatus for enabling RBPM, and through utilization thereof, a method for enhancing blood flow through portions of cardiovascular system comprised in the torso, neck and head, and specifically through, or around, partially clogged coronary arteries as well as through the arteries of the brain.